CONTEMPORARY NY
New York Architecture Images- Midtown

Equitable Center

architect

Edward Larrabee Barnes

location

787 Seventh Ave., bet. W51 & W52. 

date

1986

style

Post-Modernism  

construction

752 ft (229 m), 54 floors

type

Office Building

 

 

images

 

The facade of this 54-storey building consists of alternating bands of windows and limestone, interrupted by piers of brown granite. The tower rises to the height of 228.5 m through two setbacks, indicated by recessed bays on the north and south facades. The plain limestone top with its vertical granite striping forms the last setback and features an arched Romanesque window on both ends -- this houses the Equitable boardroom. 

Included within the 142,660 m² state-of-art building is a 100-seat auditorium, a fitness club and several restaurants as an effort to attract tenants to this then professionally unfashionable part of Midtown. Similarly, the building was connected to the extensive Rockfeller Center underground concourse, and a renovation was undertaken in the eastern Equitable building on the Sixth Avenue side. 

On the ground floor there is a through-block galleria as well as the Equitable (now AXA) Gallery for art exhibitions. 

contact

nyc-architecture.com